Hello, I'm reporting SEM results that were calculated with the MLR estimator. While this may seem trivial, I haven't been able to find what the MLR acronym stands for. I'd guess that it stands for "Maximum Likelihood Robust", but I want to ensure that I cite it properly. If you could please let me know, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

I am running a two level MLSEM. I have slightly nonnormal continuous data and from what I understand, using a Satorra-Bentler x2 with robust standard errors should be used. Mplus has this under the MLM estimator.

However, in a two level analysis, MLM is not available, but MLR is. In the manual, MLR also provides robust standard errors.

My question is: how is MLR related to MLM (in short-- how do I write this up aside from saying that I used a maximum likelihood estimator with robust standard errors)?

MLM – maximum likelihood parameter estimates with standard errors and a mean-adjusted chi-square test statistic that are robust to non-normality. The MLM chi-square test statistic is also referred to as the Satorra-Bentler chi-square.

MLR – maximum likelihood parameter estimates with standard errors and a chi-square test statistic (when applicable) that are robust to non-normality and non-independence of observations when used with TYPE=COMPLEX. The MLR standard errors are computed using a sandwich estimator. The MLR chi-square test statistic is asymptotically equivalent to the Yuan-Bentler T2* test statistic.

See the Yuan and Bentler paper referenced in the user's guide. MLR is an extension of MLM that can include missing data.

I have a follow up question. I am using MPLUS 5.2 and it displays the two-tailed p value-- how is it possible that in the unstandardized output-- it is nonsignificant (p>.05) and then in the standardized results, it is significant (p<.05)?

I am modeling achievement (ACHW and ACHB) defined by reading and math at two levels (student and school level) and I am using the presence of basic facilities at the school level as a predictor (i.e., presence of electricity, 1=yes, 0=no).

I would go with the tests for the unstandardized coefficients, but I haven't seen this studied. It could be a good methods research project, simulating data to see for which type of coefficient the z tests behave best at different sample sizes.

I would like to use the MLR estimator because the mardia coefficient shows me that I can't assume multivariate normal distribution for my data. Is the use of the MLR Estimator appropriate here or do I have to use the normal ML?

Dear Dr. Bengt and Dr. Linda In my model, I have 41 variables. 4 of them have kurtosis values > 3 (3.6, 3.6, 5.6 and 6.8). Do I need to run my model using MLM or MLV estimators? What is the rule of thumb to use the MLM/MLV instead of ML? What is the difference between MLM and MLV? Thanks

There are three estimators that are robust to non-normality. Following are brief descriptions. Only MLR is available with missing data. This is what I would recommend.

• MLM – maximum likelihood parameter estimates with standard errors and a mean-adjusted chi-square test statistic that are robust to non-normality. The MLM chi-square test statistic is also referred to as the Satorra-Bentler chi-square. • MLMV – maximum likelihood parameter estimates with standard errors and a mean- and variance-adjusted chi-square test statistic that are robust to non-normality • MLR – maximum likelihood parameter estimates with standard errors and a chi-square test statistic (when applicable) that are robust to non-normality and non-independence of observations when used with TYPE=COMPLEX. The MLR standard errors are computed using a sandwich estimator. The MLR chi-square test statistic is asymptotically equivalent to the Yuan-Bentler T2* test statistic.

Hi Linda, I just follow some of your previous suggestions about using WLSMV for a combination of continuous and categorical variables, in non normal distribution data. However, I´m not sure how to interpret the results as I didn´t get RMSEA, CFI,TLI or SRMR as I use to see using MLR estimate.

Hi Linda, Thanks for your response. I´m trying another versión of the program, but I had this warning message: *** ERROR in VARIABLE command The CATEGORICAL option is used for dependent variables only. The following variable is an independent variable in the model. Problem with: NSE *** ERROR in VARIABLE command The CATEGORICAL option is used for dependent variables only. The following variable is an independent variable in the model. Problem with: EDUCA

I´m using some demographics as education, sex and age to predict physical activity levels in my model. I don´t understand why categorical variables can only be dependent variables.

It is not that categorical variables can only be dependent variables. It is that the scale is only an issue for dependent variables. In regression, covariates can be binary or continuous. In all cases, they are treated as continuous and the model is estimated conditioned on them so that no distributional assumptions are made about them.

But I didn´t get any results with this data, only the warning message. That means that I should treat my categorical variables as continuous? In that sense, use MLR and do not introduce them as categorical?

Hi, I am conducting a latent growth model with 4 time points. At each time point, the the observed variables are skewed and departs from normality. In such a case, would you recommend I use MLR instead of ML?